A FINE DAY TO DYE (Tutorials Included)...

"Of course there are many ways we can reuse something. We can dye it. We can cut it. We can change the buttons. Those are other ways to make it alive. But this is a new step to use anything - hats, socks, shirts. It's the first step in the process."

-Issey Miyake-

I woke up this morning and decided it was a fine day to dye. Being cloudy and cold here, I thought it would be a good day to spend at home getting some background fabrics, papers, and tags prepared to have on hand for some project ideas. I spent a delightful morning mixing, dipping, and dripping!I wanted to shabby up some silk roses that I plucked from a vine purchased at a flea market for a $1.00. I don't know about you but I rarely ever happen upon perfectly aged millinery flowers. When I do they are very pricey and I just can't bring myself to pluck them from vintage hats, so, a second best option is to shabby up new or gently used ones.

SHABBY ROSES are as easy to make as 1, 2, 3...

For this project you will need:

*Silk Roses, plucked from the stem

*Silk Rose Leaves, plucked from the stem (optional)
*Old Pillow Case
*Washing Machine and detergent
*Dryer
*Instant Coffee
*Deep Bowl and spoon
*Boiling water
*Disposable Rubber Gloves

INSTRUCTIONS:

*Place plucked roses in an old pillow case. Tie open end of pillow case in a knot.

*Toss pillow case full of roses into washing machine, add a small amount of detergent and wash on a regular cycle. DO NOT ADD FABRIC SOFTENER. The washing process will remove the sizing from the flowers and fray the edges of the petals.*After washing, toss pillow case of freshly washed flowers in the dryer on low heat for few minutes to get out the excess water.

*Remove from dryer and pillow case, flowers will still be damp, lay out on an old towel, shaping slightly and allow to finish air drying.*If using rose leaves, repeat the process as described above. DO NOT WASH THE LEAVES AND THE FLOWERS TOGETHER. The dye in the leaves is quite strong and if you wash your flowers with the leaves they will have a sickly green tint to them.

You can use your shabby rose as is or go one step further:

*Mix two heaping tablespoons of coffee with 1 cup of boiling water in a deep bowl and stir until coffee is dissolved.

* Float your rose in the mixture upside down for about 5 minutes. Turn rose over for another 5 minutes. You can leave it in the dye bath longer if you want a darker flower.*Wearing disposable glove, shake out excess coffee dye and lay on protected surface to drain and allow to dry for a while. After it has had time to drain a dry a bit, turn the rose face down to continue drying process, the coffee will pool at the petal tips giving them a richer antique look.

TIP: I lay down a sheet of wax paper, placing an old book page on top of the wax paper, then I lay out the roses to dry on top of the book pages. Once dry and removed not only do I have a shabby roses but beautifully aged background pages for other pieces of art! You can substitute a cotton fabric like muslin or canvas for the paper and get a neat stained fabric as well.

While my roses were soaking I moved on to a fabric dying technique using acrylic paints and hot water. Cotton fabrics work best with this technique, muslin and drop cloth canvas are my favorites to use.

ACRYLIC DYE BATH:

For this project you will need:

*Acrylic Paints of your color choice. Metallic paints also work with this technique.( I used Folk Art brand in Country Twill, Jamaican Sea, and Hauser Green Light )
* Warm Water
*Spoons
*Deep Bowls
*Cotton Fabric of your choice
( My fabric was muslin ripped down into 10 in. x 5 in. pieces )
*Disposable Gloves*Wax Paper
*Iron

INSTRUCTIONS:

*In a deep bowl mix 3 teaspoons of acrylic paint and 1 cup of warm water, stirring until paint is mixed and diluted well. NOTE: You can increase dye bath to accommodate larger pieces of fabric. My Country Twill dye is not shown below but it was mixed the same as the recipe above.
I mixed my green directly into my blue when I was finished with it to get the hue I wanted.*Spread out a sheet of waxed paper large enough to dry fabric on.

*Wearing disposable gloves, dip fabric into acrylic dye bath, using a spoon to fully submerge fabric, and soak until desired hue is obtained.*Lift out the fabric, pulling it gently through one hand to wring out excess dye.

*Spread wet fabric on waxed paper and allow to dry.

*Once fabric is completely dry, using a dry iron on a cotton setting, iron fabric to further set dye.

TIP: Lay book pages on top of waxed paper, layer on wet dyed fabric, Place another piece of paper, I used ledger paper, on top of wet fabric,And run a brayer over the layers. Remove top sheet, set aside to dry.Remove fabric to another piece of waxed paper to dry. Allow under layer paper to dry.This will give you some mottled painted background pages to further embellish or use in your artwork!

I used the excess coffee and acrylic dye baths to dye up some batches of shipping tags too!

For some of the tags, I sandwiched the wet tags between a folded book page, Brayed over it, Unfolding the page, removing the tag, Setting both aside to dry on waxed paper.

I went back to the coffee dye bath and dyed a 10 in. x 10 in. square of muslin and cotton quilt batting, laying them out on wax paper to dry with a little gap between them. I lay dry shipping tags in the gap slightly over lapping the edges of the fabric. The dry tag will wick up the coffee from the wet fabric edges and stain the tag. I removed the tags before the stains melded into one another and replaced them with more dry tags. After I was finished with the these tags, I took my dry background sheets and lay them face down on the cotton batting, lightly pressing and blotting with my hands, this over stained the color from the acrylic dye giving it an antique feel.I set those aside to dry and moved on to my last dye job, gauze.

With the remaining coffee dye bath I unrolled a roll of gauze and plunged the whole thing into the coffee, soaking all of it up, squeezing it out, and soaking it back up. I left the gauze very saturated and spread it out on wax paper to dry. Since it is synthetic it does not dye well, so, it needs to sit quite a while before the final squeeze to get rid of the excess liquid. I'll go back later this evening to wring out the excess and spread it out to dry.

Lastly, I wanted to further stain my damp tags so I took one of the drying roses and lightly shook some of the excess liquid from it onto my tags and one half of my fabrics. Since the tags were still damp it made a nice faded stain into the background. Once the papers, tags, and fabrics are completely dry I will go back in and layer in more texture and depth by spattering and sponging.

And since all this was not enough to keep me busy between loads of laundry, cleaning, cooking, taking photos for this post as I went along, not to mention writing this post, I tired a printing technique with wrapping tissue paper! Oh, and did I forget to mention that I actually did sit down and watch a movie in between? I couldn't help myself, The Shop Around The Corner was on the classic movie channel. I love that movie!

So, if you could have a stay home and play day like I did today, what would you do?

Blessings,
Miss Sandy